Presented at the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CAUCASIAN STUDIES, Tbilisi, October 3-5, 2022 (https:/... more Presented at the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CAUCASIAN STUDIES, Tbilisi, October 3-5, 2022 (https://caucasiologycongress.tsu.ge)
The soldier-saint George, mounted on a white horse, running his enemy through with his lance, was... more The soldier-saint George, mounted on a white horse, running his enemy through with his lance, was adopted as the political symbol par excellence by feudal rulers and modern states, but his folk counterparts are endowed with meanings no less political within local contexts of gender relations, the exploitation of resources, and the cosmological feudalism of the eastern Georgian mountaineers.
The small Kartvelian family is one of the three endemic language families of the Caucasus. The Ka... more The small Kartvelian family is one of the three endemic language families of the Caucasus. The Kartvelian languages are double marking, with nominal case and two sets of person markers in the verb. Since the 17th century, linguists have attempted to accommodate the complexities of Georgian morphosyntax within the descriptive categories of their time, successively describing the language as nominative, (split) ergative, and active/inactive. In the present chapter, I will argue that its alignment can be most accurately described as split-intransitive, once the considerable number of monovalent dative-subject verbs are brought into consideration. Proto-Kartvelian would have had split-intransitive verb agreement, absolutively aligned verbal plurality marking, and incipient ergative-absolutive case assignment. Also discussed is the morphosyntactic orientation of the Kartvelian languages and dialects, that is, the distribution of morphological and syntactic privileges among the clausal arguments.
Presented at the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CAUCASIAN STUDIES, Tbilisi, October 3-5, 2022 (https:/... more Presented at the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CAUCASIAN STUDIES, Tbilisi, October 3-5, 2022 (https://caucasiologycongress.tsu.ge)
The soldier-saint George, mounted on a white horse, running his enemy through with his lance, was... more The soldier-saint George, mounted on a white horse, running his enemy through with his lance, was adopted as the political symbol par excellence by feudal rulers and modern states, but his folk counterparts are endowed with meanings no less political within local contexts of gender relations, the exploitation of resources, and the cosmological feudalism of the eastern Georgian mountaineers.
The small Kartvelian family is one of the three endemic language families of the Caucasus. The Ka... more The small Kartvelian family is one of the three endemic language families of the Caucasus. The Kartvelian languages are double marking, with nominal case and two sets of person markers in the verb. Since the 17th century, linguists have attempted to accommodate the complexities of Georgian morphosyntax within the descriptive categories of their time, successively describing the language as nominative, (split) ergative, and active/inactive. In the present chapter, I will argue that its alignment can be most accurately described as split-intransitive, once the considerable number of monovalent dative-subject verbs are brought into consideration. Proto-Kartvelian would have had split-intransitive verb agreement, absolutively aligned verbal plurality marking, and incipient ergative-absolutive case assignment. Also discussed is the morphosyntactic orientation of the Kartvelian languages and dialects, that is, the distribution of morphological and syntactic privileges among the clausal arguments.
Presented at the workshop "Black Sea Studies: The Past, Present, and Future of a Region" (Batumi,... more Presented at the workshop "Black Sea Studies: The Past, Present, and Future of a Region" (Batumi, 30 May 2023)
2024-06: added photos & updated bibliography
Slightly revised text of a presentation at the con... more 2024-06: added photos & updated bibliography
Slightly revised text of a presentation at the conference “Concepts in sociocultural space: The Balkans and Caucasus in focus”, Vienna, May 2023 organized by the Language-Culture-Cognition Laboratory of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
An overview of the morphology of the Kartvelian languages from a historical perspective (revised ... more An overview of the morphology of the Kartvelian languages from a historical perspective (revised version of 18 April 2023, with new addition to section on qualitative ablaut)
The original narrative of St George, the princess and the dragon drew upon the conventions of eas... more The original narrative of St George, the princess and the dragon drew upon the conventions of eastern Christian hagiography, and early forms of chivalrous romance. But key elements of the miracle story can be traced to vernacular antecedents. Of particular interest is the role of the princess. Initially, she is yet another sacrificial offering passively awaiting her fate. But after George subdues the dragon, he asks her to lead it into the city, using a leash made from her belt. The princess's role thus shifts from potential victim to co-participant in the victory over the dragon, albeit in a subordinate function to George. The motif of the maiden as "junior partner" of the saint has precedents in the oral literatures of the Caucasus, as I will attempt to demonstrate here.
THE AFFORDANCES OF ORTHODOXY FOR VERNACULAR RELIGION, 2019
paper presented at the Central Eurasian Studies Society, Pittsburgh, 27 October 2018; slightly re... more paper presented at the Central Eurasian Studies Society, Pittsburgh, 27 October 2018; slightly revised 19 April 2023
Yet another revision of my never-ending grammar of Svan, with new information on Svan phonetics f... more Yet another revision of my never-ending grammar of Svan, with new information on Svan phonetics from Yidian She's doctoral thesis and some minor corrections (20 July 2024).
Marcello Cherchi. 1997. Modern Georgian morphosyntax. A grammatico-categorial hierarchy-based ana... more Marcello Cherchi. 1997. Modern Georgian morphosyntax. A grammatico-categorial hierarchy-based analysis with special reference to indirect verbs and passives of state. [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag] Reviewed by Kevin Tuite, Anthropological Linguistics, 42 #2; 2000; 297-300
review of Donald Rayfield The Literature of Georgia: A History; The Modern Language Review, vol. ... more review of Donald Rayfield The Literature of Georgia: A History; The Modern Language Review, vol. 93, no. 2; 1998; 601-2
review of Peter T. Daniels & William Bright (eds.) The world’s writing systems. Culture Vol. XVII... more review of Peter T. Daniels & William Bright (eds.) The world’s writing systems. Culture Vol. XVII, No. 1-2; 1997; 135-137
Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia, 1996
Svan song: Two French recordings of Georgian folk music. Reviewed by Kevin Tuite, for The Annual ... more Svan song: Two French recordings of Georgian folk music. Reviewed by Kevin Tuite, for The Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia (No. 7; 1996; 93-95) (1) Géorgie. Polyphonies de Svanétie. / Georgia. Polyphony of Svaneti. (Le chant du monde, Collection du Musée de l’homme, LDX 274 990. Recordings by Sylvie Bolle- Zemp. Length 54:20. Distributed by Harmonia Mundi, 1994.) (2) Géorgie. Chants de travail — Chants religieux. (Radio France, Ocora C559062. Recordings by Yvette Grimaud. Length 69:30. Distributed by Harmonia Mundi, 1989.)
review of Georgij Klimov Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages; Anthropological Lin... more review of Georgij Klimov Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages; Anthropological Linguistics, 42 #4; 2000; 583-586
Review of Mify narodov mira ("Myths of the peoples of the world"), chief editor S. A. Tokarev. Mo... more Review of Mify narodov mira ("Myths of the peoples of the world"), chief editor S. A. Tokarev. Moscow: Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia, 1987. Two volumes, 1350 pp. Reviewed by Kevin Tuite, Dépt. d'anthropologie, Univ. de Montréal. Published in Igitur Vol. 10/11; 1995; 161-167.
Review of Frédéric Bertrand, L’anthropologie soviétique des années 20-30. Configuration d’une rup... more Review of Frédéric Bertrand, L’anthropologie soviétique des années 20-30. Configuration d’une rupture
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Papers by Kevin Tuite
Slightly revised text of a presentation at the conference “Concepts in sociocultural space: The Balkans and Caucasus in focus”, Vienna, May 2023 organized by the Language-Culture-Cognition Laboratory of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
(1) Géorgie. Polyphonies de Svanétie. / Georgia. Polyphony of Svaneti. (Le chant du monde, Collection du Musée de l’homme, LDX 274 990. Recordings by Sylvie Bolle- Zemp. Length 54:20. Distributed by Harmonia Mundi, 1994.)
(2) Géorgie. Chants de travail — Chants religieux. (Radio France, Ocora C559062. Recordings by Yvette Grimaud. Length 69:30. Distributed by Harmonia Mundi, 1989.)